I. Field of the Invention
The current invention relates to communications. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for minimizing the total energy necessary for transmitting an information signal at a required level of reliability.
II. Description of the Related Art
The use of code division multiple access (CDMA) modulation techniques is one of several techniques for facilitating communications in which a large number of system users are present. Although other techniques such as time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), and AM modulation schemes such as amplitude companded single sideband (ACSSB) are known, CDMA has significant advantages over these other techniques. The use of CDMA techniques in a multiple access communication system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,307, entitled xe2x80x9cSPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM USING SATELLITE OR TERRESTRIAL REPEATERS,xe2x80x9d and assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein. The use of CDMA techniques in a multiple access communication system is further disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,459, entitled xe2x80x9cSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING SIGNAL WAVEFORMS IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEMxe2x80x9d, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein. The CDMA system can be designed to conform to the xe2x80x9cTIA/EIA/IS-95 Mobile Station-Base Station Compatibility Standard for Dual-Mode Wideband Spread Spectrum Cellular Systemxe2x80x9d, hereinafter referred to as the IS-95 standard.
The CDMA system is a spread spectrum communication system. The benefits of spread spectrum communication are well known in the art and can be appreciated by reference to the above-cited references. CDMA, by its inherent nature of being a wideband signal, offers a form of frequency diversity by spreading the signal energy over a wide bandwidth. Therefore, frequency selective fading affects only a small part of the CDMA signal bandwidth. Space or path diversity is obtained by providing multiple signal paths through simultaneous links to a mobile user or remote station through two or more base stations. Furthermore, path diversity may be obtained by exploiting the multipath environment through spread spectrum processing by allowing signals arriving with different propagation delays to be received and processed separately. Examples of path diversity are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,501 entitled xe2x80x9cMETHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING A SOFT HANDOFF IN COMMUNICATIONS IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM,xe2x80x9d and U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,390 entitled xe2x80x9cDIVERSITY RECEIVER IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM,xe2x80x9d both assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein.
Code division multiple access communications systems have been standardized in the United States in Telecommunications Industry Association TIA/EIA/IS-95-B, entitled xe2x80x9cMOBILE STATION-BASE STATION COMPATIBILITY STANDARD FOR DUAL-MODE WIDEBAND SPREAD SPECTRUM CELLULAR SYSTEMSxe2x80x9d, incorporated by reference herein, and hereinafter referred to as IS-95-B.
IS-95-B was originally optimized for transmission of variable-rate voice frames. In order to support two-way voice communications, as typified in wireless phone applications, it is desirable that a communication system provide fairly constant and minimal data delay. For this reason, IS-95-B systems are designed with powerful forward error correction (FEC) protocols and vocoders which are designed to respond gracefully to voice frame errors. Error control protocols which require frame retransmission procedures add unacceptable delays to voice transmission, so are not designed into the IS-95-B specification.
The optimizations, which make the stand-alone IS-95-B specification ideal for voice applications, make it difficult to use for packet data applications. In many non-voice applications, such as the transmission of Internet protocol (IP) data, the delay requirements of the communication system are much less stringent than in voice applications. In the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), probably the most prevalent of protocols used in an IP network, virtually infinite transmission delays are allowed in order to guarantee error-free transmission. TCP uses retransmissions of IP datagrams, as IP packets are commonly called, to provide this transport reliability.
IP datagrams are generally too large to fit into a single IS-95-B frame. Even after dividing an IP datagram into segments small enough to fit into a set of IS-95-B frames, the entire set of IS-95-B frames would have to be received without error for the single IP datagram to be useful to TCP. The targeted frame error rate typical of an IS-95-B system make the probability of error-free reception of all segments of a single datagram very low.
As described in IS-95-B, alternative service options enable the transmission of other types of data in lieu of voice frames. Telecommunications Industry Association Interim Standard TIA/EIA/IS-707-A, entitled xe2x80x9cDATA SERVICE OPTIONS FOR SPREAD SPECTRUM SYSTEMSxe2x80x9d, hereinafter referred to as IS-707, describes a set of procedures used in the transmission of packet data in an IS-95-B system.
Radio Link Protocol (RLP) is described in TIA/EIA/IS-707-A.8, entitled xe2x80x9cDATA SERVICE OPTIONS FOR SPREAD SPECTRUM SYSTEMS: RADIO LINK PROTOCOL TYPE 2xe2x80x9d, hereinafter referred to as RLP2, and incorporated herein by reference. RLP2 incorporates an error control protocol with frame retransmission procedures over the IS-95-B frame layer. RLP is of a class of error control protocols known NAK-based ARQ protocols, which are well known in the art. The IS-707 RLP, facilitates the transmission of a byte-stream, rather than a series of voice frames, through an IS-95-B communication system.
Several protocol layers typically reside above the RLP layer. IP datagrams, for example, are typically converted into a Point-To-Point Protocol (PPP) byte stream before being presented as a byte stream to the RLP protocol layer. As the RLP layer ignores the protocol and framing of higher protocol layers, the stream of data transported by RLP is said to be a xe2x80x9cfeatureless byte streamxe2x80x9d.
RLP was originally designed to satisfy the requirements of sending large datagrams through an IS-95-B channel. For example, if an IP datagram of 500 bytes were to be simply sent in IS-95-B frames carrying 20 bytes each, the IP datagram would fill 25 consecutive IS-95-B frames. Without some kind of error control layer, all 25 of these RLP frames would have to be received without error in order for the IP datagram to be useful to higher protocol layers. On an IS-95-B channel having a 1% frame error rate, the effective error rate of the IP datagram delivery would be (1xe2x88x92(0.99)25), or 22%. This is a very high error rate compared to most networks used to carry Internet Protocol traffic. RLP was designed as a link layer protocol that would decrease the error rate of IP traffic to be comparable to the error rate typical of a 10Base2 ethernet channel.
The International Telecommunications Union recently requested the submission of proposed methods for providing high rate data and high-quality speech services over wireless communication channels. A first of these proposals was issued by the Telecommunications Industry Association, entitled xe2x80x9cThe cdma2000 ITU-R RTT Candidate Submission. The Telecommunications Industry Association is currently developing the cdma2000 proposal as interim standard TIA/EIA/IS-2000, and hereinafter referred to as cdma2000. A second of these proposals was issued by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), entitled xe2x80x9cThe ETSI UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) ITU-R RTT Candidate Submissionxe2x80x9d, also known as xe2x80x9cwideband CDMAxe2x80x9d and hereinafter referred to as W-CDMA. A third proposal was submitted by U.S. TG 8/1 entitled xe2x80x9cThe UWC-136 Candidate Submissionxe2x80x9d, hereinafter referred to as EDGE. The contents of these submissions is public record and is well known in the art.
RLP2 was designed for use with IS-95-B. A new RLP designed for use with cdma2000 is described in TIA/EIA/IS-707-A-1.10, entitled xe2x80x9cDATA SERVICE OPTIONS FOR SPREAD SPECTRUM SYSTEMS: RADIO LINK PROTOCOL TYPE 3xe2x80x9d, hereinafter referred to as RLP3E, and incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention is a novel method and apparatus for transmitting a signal at a predetermined level of reliability using retransmission of erroneously transmitted frames. The present invention describes a method of maximally efficient transmission in terms of transmission energy in a system employing retransmission of erroneously received frames of data.
The transmitting station evaluates the frame error rate (FER) as a function of energy. In one embodiment, the transmitting station adaptively evaluates feedback information received from the receiving station. In another embodiment, the transmitting station evaluates conditions of a transmission channel, e.g., attenuation, fading, number of multipaths, relative velocity of the RS and the BS, data rate. The transmitting station then uses a look-up table, containing simulated FER as a function of energy for all potential channel conditions, to select the proper relationship for given conditions.
Next, the transmitting station determines a combination of initial transmission energies and retransmission energies that will provide the target level of reliability while minimizing the total transmission energy employed in the initial transmission and the retransmissions. The present invention provides a closed form solution for determining the most effective transmission energies for the initial transmission and the retransmission for an important class of functions describing the relation between FER and energy. The present invention further suggests methods for determining the most effective transmission energies for the initial transmission and the retransmission for other classes of functions describing the relation between FER and energy.
The transmitting station transmits a frame with initial transmission energy. Employing conventional feedback methods, the transmitting station is alerted to the occurrence of frame errors at the receiving station. The transmitting station upon notification of a frame error retransmits the frame with energy determined to minimize the total energy required to transmit the frame with a predetermined level of reliability.